Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calculators => Topic started by: LincolnB on July 19, 2011, 03:59:53 pm
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Okay, the title is a little presumptuous. However, in my programming experience Calcsys (search for it on ticalc.org if you don't know what it is) is a wonderful application that really made me realize how the calculator works on a very basic level. I especially like to mess around in the VAT and the Disassembler. Those two, plus the Console, and it's staying on my calculator forever. It's probably the last thing I'd delete (except for probably Axe) if I absolutely needed the space.
So yeah. ;D How often do you guys use Calcsys, and what are you opinions on the program?
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I use it all the time. Good for changing the type of format data in the VAT is treated, for seeing the exact disassembly of my Axe programs so I can try to spot optimizations and tricks, and many other things. It is horribly outdated, but for now it's the best of it's kind.
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Personally, I never use it unless I'm monitoring line states in the serial port. The hex editor isn't fast enough compared to PC ones and it doesn't really offer any features that I use regularly.
PS: I wrote my own hex editor that's a heck of a lot faster than calcsys' in Axe. I generally use that if I need something on-calc.
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I have a small list of things that every programmer's calculator should have on it no matter what: CalcUtil and CalcSys.
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I used to love CalcUtil....I kept my programs in archive, all the time. But once, when quitting out of an archived program, my calculator crashed and my RAM cleared and I lost my most important project at the time. I agree, though, that it is a pretty awesome utility.
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PS: I wrote my own hex editor that's a heck of a lot faster than calcsys' in Axe. I generally use that if I need something on-calc.
May I have? :)
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PS: I wrote my own hex editor that's a heck of a lot faster than calcsys' in Axe. I generally use that if I need something on-calc.
Same, I wrote one in Axe which is kinda better than CalcSys, might share it one time.
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Funnily enough, so have I :)
It seems everyone writes their own hex editors, sprite editors, and base converters.
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Funnily enough, so have I :)
It seems everyone writes their own hex editors, sprite editors, and base converters.
And quadratic solvers, of course.
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I don't use CalcSys a lot, but it will always remain on my calc: I use it often when testing strange things in the calc community or when messing with the VAT. Plus it's calc-community-wide understood and used.
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Calcsys is incredibly helpful if you ever accidentally your archive.
PS: I wrote my own hex editor that's a heck of a lot faster than calcsys' in Axe. I generally use that if I need something on-calc.
Same, I wrote one in Axe which is kinda better than CalcSys, might share it one time.
Ditto that (look for Calcley).
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Now that the surge is over, let me explain just how useful Calcsys is to me.
I use calcsys pretty much every day. Here is what I have used it for:
- Sending link high/low
- Discovering the LCD mirror ports
- Discovering that port 15 exists
- Discovering that protected ports don't require the special sequence
- Finding out what different LCD commands do
- Playing around with the timers
- Unlocking flash (I've done it)
- Discovering ports 25/26 (i.e. the ones that allow you to access all ram)
- Figuring out how to setup the usb driver as host
- Discovering how to toggle individual lines in usb
- Finding the address of bcalls
- Checking memory locations for data
- Searching for specific memory sequences
- Scoping out an area before an OS mod
- Checking to make sure the OS mod worked
- Checking to see if my boot mod worked
- Testing out opcode sequences (before @z80)
- Discovering I only had 48KB of ram
- Reading information that I wrote to ram when I modded my boot code
- Learning how the certificate works
- Looking at the certificate at any time
- Protecting/Unprotecting programs
- Changing a program type
- Renaming a program
- Viewing a program data
- Finding out what pages apps are on
- Viewing app headers
- Viewing OS headers
- Viewing OS signature
So yeah, I use Calcsys a lot, so much that I have it saved into every single one of my savestates on WabbitEmu. Sometimes, it's just easier to use than the calcsys debugger.
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Calcsys is definitely a great tool. I think it was one of the first apps on my 84 besides mirage, of course.
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Lol I think the first app everyone downloads is a shell of some sort.
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Hm I remember not finding mirage for a while, first thing I found was Ion (a group) :P
I don't use calcsys too often, but have calcsys nonetheless for the times when I might happen to need it :)
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- Discovering that protected ports don't require the special sequence
Wait, what? Did I just read... what I think I read?
Edit: 1900th post!
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It's true. The only one that requires the sequence is unlocking flash. Other than that, all the other ones work without a sequence from anywhere (no special flash page required - even RAM works) after you've unlocked flash.
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Yeah. I got it cleared up with BrandonW. He says that he's not sure it'll work on all calcs, though.
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I have a small list of things that every programmer's calculator should have on it no matter what: CalcUtil and CalcSys.
Do you mind sharing?
PS: I wrote my own hex editor that's a heck of a lot faster than calcsys' in Axe. I generally use that if I need something on-calc.
May I have? :)
Me too, please?
I use it all the time. Good for changing the type of format data in the VAT is treated, for seeing the exact disassembly of my Axe programs so I can try to spot optimizations and tricks, and many other things. It is horribly outdated, but for now it's the best of it's kind.
So this util would not work on nspires?
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Yeah. I got it cleared up with BrandonW. He says that he's not sure it'll work on all calcs, though.
MicrOS (http://brandonw.net/svn/calcstuff/micros/tags/), by default, runs with flash unlocked. It also has a port monitor (http://brandonw.net/svn/calcstuff/micros/trunk/readme.txt), so it's perfect for testing writes to protected ports. And the hex editor is way better than Calcsys's, in part because it was designed from the start to support flash editing.
Calcsys should work fine on the Nspire. As far as I know, it really doesn't do anything strange; in fact, it tries to avoid modifying state unless you ask it to.
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"Everyone Should Use Calcsys", I once used it, but found no use for it.
Maybe I just don't need it, but I found the program I bit confusing.
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"Everyone Should Use Calcsys", I once used it, but found no use for it.
Maybe I just don't need it, but I found the program I bit confusing.
exactely the same happened to me.
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It may be confusing, but if your calc randomly crashes, having CalcSys on your calc is your best chance of saving it and/or your files.
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ClacSys seems very useful, but I am somewhat scared of it due to my nonexistent z80 asm knowledge.